YOUR COURSE IS USELESS O

In Nigeria, when you are studying a science or healthcare course, if it’s not medicine, nursing, or pharmacy, forget it — they rate you less. Even studying nursing or pharmacy, in their eyes, you are just a support to the almighty medicine and surgery. But that is not the focus of the day.

WHERE ARE OUR RESEARCHERS?

Chemistry. Physics. Biology. Anatomy. Public health. Physiology. Biochemistry. Microbiology. Zoology. Medical Laboratory Science. Pure and Industrial Chemistry. Animal and Environmental Biology. Plant Science and Biotechnology. And many more.

If you tell an average Nigerian that you are studying any of these courses, the first things that come to mind are:

That was probably not your first choice in JAMB — your uni gave you this course.

Where would you work? You’d end up teaching biology in a secondary school.

Better go and start a small business — Cakes by Preshy (Preshy studied Animal and Environmental Biology).

The first time I got admission was to study Microbiology — I deferred it.

Why? It wasn’t my first, second, or third choice, and I, as well as my parents, thought like the average Nigerian.

I no longer think like the average Nigerian.

One of my cousins warned me not to. She studied Microbiology — she doesn’t use her degree, and I doubt she has plans to anytime soon.

But in a way, can you really blame the average Nigerian for thinking that way? The government doesn’t really fund or favour scientific and medical research. In fact, they barely even care about adequate healthcare, not to mention groundbreaking or innovative research.

Our secondary schools also play a role in downplaying other science-medical courses and only giving good PR to medicine.

Something that I realized is that many reputable scientists who contributed to trailblazing research that serves as the foundation to health science studied courses that many Nigerians term “useless and a waste of time.”

Louis Pasteur studied Chemistry and Physics.

Robert Hooke studied Science and Mechanics.

Sergei Winogradsky studied Microbiology.

Gregor Mendel studied Natural Sciences.

Camillo Golgi studied Biology.

Matthias Schleiden studied Botany.

And many more.

A lot of people do not realize these courses contribute to research in a nation and play a role in the welfare of the citizens.

Even with this, there are little to no employment opportunities for the people who study them, so they are forced to start small businesses or teach: out of context, this isn’t a bad thing, but we can’t all be teachers, and if all our researchers are making small chops and selling wigs, who is doing the actual research?